Branding Guidelines: What are they?

As part of the Visual Communication Brief, I need to create a Branding Guideline to submit with my book cover design.

We went through the basics of a "Branding Guideline" in class and then I went home and researched further into existing Branding Guidelines, as well as seeking out some advice on what to include in a Brand Guideline.

This website was extremely helpful, and provided me with links to example Branding Guidelines from a number of well known companies:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/07/21/designing-style-guidelines-for-brands-and-websites/

I've chosen to reference the Channel 4 "Style Guide" to explain my research on Branding Guidelines.

Colour

Channel 4's colour guidelines

http://www.channel4.com/about_c4/styleguide/downloads/C4StyleGuide1.1.pdf

The above is taken from Channel 4's publicly available "style guide", and defines the colours that should be used on their material. This applies across the board, on their website, adverts and any other promotional material.

They've included the CYMK, RGB, Hexadecimal and Pantone details of each colour, as well as featuring the colour itself. This not only gives a visual representation of each colour, but ensures each colour can be applied to any format - screen or print - across platforms.  

This has been presented in an aesthetically pleasing way using a rainbow-effect style gradually moving through each shade. This can easily be printed off and used as a simple reference guide for someone needing to use it to create material for Channel 4. 

Font

Channel 4 has it's own font, and it has referenced to this font in their Branding Guideline. Then they have provided examples of each style that can be applied to the font to create different variations and defined when and where these variations should be used.

The example above shows the 'C4 Headline' style. Channel 4 has defined where the font should be used (large titles, extensively on posters) the size the font should be (14pt and above) any specific design elements that apply to the font (e.g. when used in print, the only type face that should be in a box) and any other rules to follow (Always use correct upper and lower case lettering). 

The entire alphabet and varying symbols have been used to show what each letter/symbol looks like when the typeface is applied to it, which like the Colours section provides a visual reference for the user. 

Also defined is the minimum type size, suitability for each type style, "leading" (distance between lines of type) for both Headlines and Body text and how to calculate that. 

Text colour is also defined, and any allowances that can be made are mentioned too. Otherwise, you should follow the rules defined in the "colour" section of the guideline.

Writing Copy

Even though it may not apply to my Branding Guideline, another common thing is to define any "writing copy" that should be followed when designing things for a brand.
Specifics Include:

• When to use upper or lower case
• Variations of writing the company/title name
• How are numbers written? E.g. numbers 1 - 10 to be written out ("one", "seven") and anything further to be written in figures ("19"). Specifics within this - e.g. as above "All numbers at the beginning of sentences should be written out".
• How are dates written?
• Punctuation specifics.

Logo

Defined is an explanation of the logo, a minimum size it should be displayed for print (10mm) and web (30 pixels deep) and a maximum size (none). 

The position of the logo is explained, and an example is shown. An explanation of that decision is also provided.

Rules on the display of the logo are explained - can it be edited in any way? can the user add an outline? can the user incorporate text into the logo? Answers any questions about the manipulation of the logo.

My Proposed Poster

• I decided to feature the "physical book"to clarify it was an advertisement for book, rather than a TV show or film.
• Hierarchy - the logo is the biggest and at the top, featuring the sparingly used Red because I wanted that to be the very first thing seen, using the knife to draw peoples attention. The knife then points down to the book, and the text can then be read.
• The feature of the tagline (provided by Penguin) at the very bottom. I felt it summed up the book well and in a short amount of words, so was useful to use, and despite it's bottom position still stands well against the background with the contrasting red.
• I went for a border as it framed the poster well and allowed me to have the book "sit" on something that contrasted it well. The brown of the cityscape was clashing with the brown on the actual book. 
• Steered away from featuring the fencing. If I featured the fencing, I'd have to use the same technique of the newspaper hanging, and then the poster would be a complete copy of the book cover. 

The A2 Poster

The next piece I need to design is the A2 poster. Before I do this, I decided to have a quick look at existing book promotion posters to get an idea of what sort of content that have and how they are designed.

What I noted about book promotion posters:

• Majority feature the book being promoted - e.g. a picture of the physical book.
• Text along the lines of "on sale here", "available to buy now"
• Like all posters, features imagery relevant to the book, following the chosen design style.
• Mention of the author - are the well known? emphasis on that
• Same features as majority of promo posters, just for a book. 

When in Waterstones, I took some pictures of the posters they have up in there. 

• Not all feature a picture of the physical book - but there is mention of the words "novel", "book" etc. 
• Being featured in a book store, these will automatically be taken as adverts for books.
• Recommendations: "read it, and you'll never be quite the same again" - gives someone a reason to read the book.

My Proposed Book Cover

This is my proposed book cover for "The Outsiders". Personally, I think it's very successful.

My aim for this cover was to communicate the idea of Gang Culture and it's prominence in a big city (In the book, it's Tulsa), and how it divides a community like it has the one in The Outsiders.

• The fence represents separation and division.
• The logo represents a gang sign, how it's stamped onto a newspaper with disregard for what was already there.
• The knife represents violence and suggests the cause of the division in community. 
• Red can be taken as a violent and brutal colour, due to its immediate relation to Blood. It is sparingly used to colour aspects I would like to drawn attention to. For this reason, it is used on just one place on the front cover - on the knife.
• The rips inside the paper can be taken as both wear-and-tear of the paper, or as bullet holes. 
• The battered newspaper represents destruction and provides insights into the happenings of the book through the various headlines spread amongst the page.
• The newspaper strip and how it runs around the page is also hinting towards the classic layout of Penguin/Puffin books.

Thinking about communicating a message

I reached a point in the design of my front cover where I felt as if I were finished - all of the required info was on the page and I had designed pretty much exactly what I had drawn on paper - but I wasn't comfortable with the strength of the message my cover was giving off, and the root of the problem was the background I had chosen.

The most difficult part of this project has not been the intricate detail I went into on my attempt to get the newspaper looking some-what realistic, it's been choosing a suitable background to both fits in with my neutral, retro, colour scheme but does not clash with the very prominent grey fencing and features imagery that can be seen on my design (does not fall behind the newspaper). I originally settled for the following picture:

I was drawn to this picture as the positioning of a fence in front of it would look reasonably realistic, and because of the car. I could envision how I could position it - have the car just below the newspaper, positioned off centre. The thought of having a car on the front cover meant it would relate to the book slightly.

After I imported this image, I saw another.

The shape of the sign on the right hand side is something typically American, and I knew that if I featured on the front of the cover it would communicate the idea of "America" and therefore give the audience a clue on where the book was set. So I tried importing this image as my background. I didn't really like it. I wasn't a fan of the colours, and in order to position the sign where I wanted it I had to enlarge and reposition it so much the rest of the image didn't look right - as my intentions were to have it wrap around the entire cover. 

I went back to the first, and applied a quick image trace to it. The look this gave was something I really liked, so I decided to run with it. I applied an image trace to the second image, which turned it into a vector, and pinched the sign from it and placed it into the first, next to the car. I then created a quick shadow to match the car and turn it to a colour that suited. This is what the result was:

So I settled for this for a while.

Once I reached the point where I thought I was finished, I decided that it was the background holding it back from being a successful cover that portrays the message of the book. The background was giving off the vibe that the outsiders was set in dirt tracks, dusty roads, in the middle of nowhere etc, which is not the case. Whilst the American sign and the car give clues to the country it's set in, it became a toss up between communicating the location of the book or the theme of the book. Yes, I had a knife in the centre of the page, but I didn't think this communicated the idea of "gang culture" strong enough. I thought about where gangs are usually set - and where the Outsiders is set, in Tulsa, and decided to try a city-scape scene. 

I found a 1960's skyline, and used the pen tool to trace it. 

After this I adjusted the size of some of the towers and applied the "roughen" effect to it. This makes straight lines slightly uneven, and matches the rest of my design (this effect is also applied to the logo, the newspaper, the lines on the newspaper etc). 

I really did like the colouring of the sky of the background I had originally settled for, so I decided to stick with it. 

The city scape obviously communicates a big-city vibe, so combined with the knife in the logo it strengthens the message of Gangs and gang culture. Then, with the fencing in front, it suggests an idea of those that are "the outsiders" are divided from the bigger city/the rest of the society, and that a gang culture is part of the reason of this. 

This city-scape also wraps around the entire book, so the back cover does not look as plain as it was before and gives the design a more complete feeling. 

Book Cover Content: Newspaper

I've been experimenting with the idea of featuring a newspaper in my design. Whilst the newspaper and "the news" are also relevant to the book, I want to utilise how a newspaper has different "articles" to subtly convey the themes of the book on the front cover. So, I've started to look at existing newspapers - from now and the 1960's, from america, and design that feature newspapers and have developed the concept of it. Below is a small mood board of this.

The above picture of the drawing over the newspaper has sparked an idea for my design. I want to convey a slight sense of gang culture/rebellion etc, and I think that the drawing above, how someone has disregarded the writing underneath and drawn what they want over it, hints towards this. I could perhaps write the title/author of the book this way if I'm going to base my design around a newspaper.

Also, the idea of a newspaper being ripped or destroyed seems to convey a similar thing - disregard, rebellion, violence.

Image sources:

http://calstate.fullerton.edu/news/Inside/spotlight/2009/fullerton-way/

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/the-boy-who-survived-a-1960-midair-crash/

http://www.simplypersonalized.com/newspaper-gifts/your-date-newspaper-books/washington-post-decade-books/washington-post-60s-decade-book/

http://bgfons.com/upload/newspaper_texture2847.jpg

http://designspiration.net/image/100304661580/

http://designspiration.net/image/3668522355939/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/104568022570476957/
http://designspiration.net/image/871566003405/
http://designspiration.net/image/411124935575/
http://designspiration.net/image/2309058308771/
http://designspiration.net/image/72221745316/
http://designspiration.net/image/1069848167347/

Design Styles and Colour Schemes

I've now started to look into the design style I'm going to go for and the colours I'm going to feature. I've found 2 pieces of work by artist Vanessa Fung, on her own blog.

http://syfungillustration.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/graphic-design-for-entertainment-with.html

copyright: Vanessa Fung, http://syfungillustration.blogspot.co.uk

I absolutely love the design style she's gone for. It's retro looking, and the colour she's chosen hold up the retro feel too. They're "muted colours" - colours mixed with shades of grey to "tone" them down, like below.

I absolutely think that the colours play a strong part in portraying the era that the design is set in, and I am almost definitely decided on featuring 'muted' colours in my design. They seem naturally nostalgic, through the use of their slight grey tones, and this will help towards providing a sense of 'the past' in my book cover. The sense of nostalgia the colours give off will also strengthen the "retro" style I'm aiming for.

Muted colours also seem to be a current trend, so whilst giving off a nostalgic, retro feel the use of them will at the same time present the book as a current, "trendy" item, and play a part in appealing to the teenagers of today. 

I also started to have a look at the colours featured in some photos that are actually from the 1960's, or are very obviously inspired by the 1960's. 

http://www.pinterest.com/lbigler1021/the-outsiders/

"Retro"

Above are all examples of the sort of design style I'm going for.

Summary of the "retro" design style:

- Muted colours, and limited use of them. 

- Use of shapes and illustrations (e.g. a silhouette, items built out of shapes of colour)

- Use of textures (e.g. as a background or to make certain shapes look more interesting)

- Very strong font choices

- Imagery significant to the era you're trying to represent ( a car, clothing etc)

http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=retro%20design%20poster&rs=ac&len=12

'The Outsiders' in Tulsa

After some research, I found that the Outsiders was set in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the US. So, I google searched some images of Tulsa in the 1960's, as I want to try and convey the area and the era the book is set in my design.

Bare, run down streets.

The "drive in" featured in the book and film.

Dirt tracks

Tall buildings, rather fancy. Bright lights, typical "skyline" style. - different between East & West side? 

Images: black & white, desaturated, grainy.

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/193443746463905015/

http://automotivemileposts.com/garage/v3n1.html

http://theoldmotor.com/?p=65436

http://www.playle.com/listing.php?i=SCVIEW189662

http://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/photography/articles/120881.aspx

http://www.pinterest.com/lbigler1021/the-outsiders/